Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 - The Android Landscape
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Performance
Molding the Android
We've heard much about the software aspect of the X10, but for both Timescape and Mediascape to work seamlessly, you'll need solid performing hardware to accompany it. What the X10 has within its core is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor. We've seen Android devices that are perfectly capable of handling themselves without the power of the Snapdragon processors, so with the X10 using this, what we are looking at is not just performance, but its reliability on the road.
With its 1GHz processor, we are expecting some blazing fast speeds. Navigating the usual Android interface netted the usual speeds, with no visible lags or slowdown when we flipped through the limited three-page layout. If you're not a heavy app downloader or user, the lack of pages for you to anchor your widgets or apps onto shouldn't pose that big an issue. What should concern you is the performance of the Timescape interface. With Timescape downloading your updates from Facebook and Twitter in the background, we noticed a tremendous slowdown in the Timescape interface. This essentially puts the whole interface on hold until the update is fully loaded. Though Timescape went back to its smooth operation right after, it does dampen the otherwise fast and intuitive user interface.
Sony Ericsson's track record in multimedia delivery should put the X10 at some advantage, and that it did. While we weren't too thrilled with its PlayNow service, the Mediascape concept freshens up the mundane Android music player interface. Its audio capabilities were above average, and combining this with the clear and sufficently sized 800 x 480 pixels 4.0-inch touchscreen, and it's a given that the X10 will be fared quite well in the multimedia department.
Located at the rear of the X10 is an 8-megapixel camera, which makes it the first Android device that goes beyond the usual 5-megapixel sensors. Fortunately, the X10 is equipped with an LED flash for good measure, and that will give it a slight advantage for shots in the dark (though not too dark). As usual, we put the phone's camera through our resolution and color chart, and a specific test shot to gauge its imaging capabilities.
From what we saw on the resolution chart, we have to say the X10's camera came through with solid detail levels and sharpness. Noise control was handled well as seen on the dark areas of the color charts. For color reproduction, we noticed warm and reddish hues to its images, and this is noticable on both the color chart and the standard test image we took.
Here comes the real deal - the X10's battery life. Smartphone users all over the world would always have one thing on their mind - just how long can the device survive on one single charge? This is especially important for Android devices, which constantly pull data from the Google server to synchronize your emails and contacts. In doing so, the biggest concern would be the battery life. This is more pronounced for the X10, which uses a 1GHz processor and a sizably large screen, and thankfully powered by a 1500mAh battery. We sized it up alongside a few other devices of its range for battery life comparisons starting off with our grueling video looping test.
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The results are obvious for all - the X10 won't be suitable for heavy usage on the road. Clocking 2 hours 35 minutes for our battery test and considering its higher battery capacity, the X10 is ranked lower than devices such as the HTC HD2 and Google Nexus One with similar (or larger) screen sizes and lower battery capacity. While it's not surprising to see how the Motorola Milestone managed to fare better with its smaller screen and managable processor, it's still a good indication of how the X10 fares against its Android siblings. For the moment, the Google Nexus One claims ownership of the best battery performance and portability index of almost all Android devices out there.
The X10's battery benchmark results were reflected in our daily usage scenrios too. We started off the morning with a full charge, but found it wanting for more power in less than 12 hours! The hours were spent with internet usage for the constant Google Sync and some data downloads from our Twitter feed, intermittent calls, messaging and music thrown in. Now, if you were to keep a close watch on your usage pattern, you could enhance the X10's power efficiency by deactivating Google Sync and Twitter, ensure your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is off and push your screen brightness to the minimum. In other words, you'll be using a phone, not a smartphone.
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